


Dance With Me

by kaeorin



Series: Loki's Lullabies [98]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avenger Loki (Marvel), Comfort, Dancing, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Insecurity, M/M, Music, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:28:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25026211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaeorin/pseuds/kaeorin
Summary: You’re not a dancer. You’ve never been a dancer. But Loki looks so beautiful when he dances that maybe you want to learn.
Relationships: Loki (Marvel)/Reader
Series: Loki's Lullabies [98]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678240
Comments: 6
Kudos: 154





	Dance With Me

You would never have expected, early on, that Loki was such a dancer. In retrospect, it seemed like it should have been obvious to you, assuming he’d grown up with countless grand parties in the palace and surely he would have had to dance at them. But, for as tricky as he was, and sly, he never truly struck you as someone who would dance in front of other people? It seemed almost undignified in your head. Loki of Asgard, ever allowing something as low as music to inspire him to move around in nonsensical patterns? Perish the thought.

But he was exceedingly dignified when he danced. He kept his back perfectly straight and his face perfectly neutral and danced only to music that was appropriately elegant and sweeping. In the beginning, anyway. You’d first noticed him at one of Tony’s parties. For most of the night, Tony had played the usual fare: standard pop songs that were easy to dance to, with a few classic rock pieces scattered here and there. As the night wore on, though, more and more classical pieces had joined the rotation. You were exhausted. You just worked in one of the labs; you weren’t a superhero, and maybe you hadn’t paced yourself well enough, so you had mostly retired to a seat off to the side. But other people were still dancing. You sipped a glass of water and watched the dance floor as you made bland contributions to your coworkers’ discussions around you.

At one point, it was like the crowd of dancers had parted expressly to draw your eye to one side of the dance floor. Loki was there, moving with a beautiful blonde woman you didn’t recognize. You’d seen him here and there throughout the night, and at other times. Sometimes he wandered into the lab, and you quite liked it when he got into your space. He wreaked a bit of havoc, of course, but you kind of loved it. He was like a breath of fresh air. 

Tonight, he was dressed all in black, and his hair was slicked back. It was hard to keep from staring at him. At this distance, he was unlikely to notice you anyway, so you didn’t really bother to worry about staring. He was stiff and elegant as he moved. Thor flitted around him with his own dance partner, but Loki never gave any sign that he noticed him at all. Even from here, you could tell that the woman was trying to make conversation, but Loki also didn’t seem to notice her. You found yourself wincing on the inside for her. Imagine being held so securely in his arms, but having him so staunchly refuse to look at you. 

It felt like he met your eyes, once. He’d just spun the woman away from him and scanned the ever-lessening crowd around the dance floor. You were familiar with the thrill that ran through you every time Loki locked eyes with you, and there it was. You hadn’t fought the smile that broke across your face. Why would you? You were probably just imagining things—the only way he could possibly have found you in the crowd was perhaps if he’d been looking for you.

You fought, hard, to keep your jealousy under control. You weren’t a dancer, yourself, and if it was you in Loki’s arms instead of that other woman, you’d just end up clomping all over his feet and making a fool of yourself. You were here tonight only because your team had been invited and you hadn’t wanted to stand out by being the only one to stay home. You sent out a quick rush of appreciation and well-wishes, hoping that Loki would feel it somehow, and then excused yourself from the rest of your team. You’d made an appearance. You’d stuck around a surprisingly long time. It was probably safe to go home now.

The next day, Loki had appeared right beside your station, startling you quite badly, and gave you a hard time for ducking out before he could convince you to dance with him.

That should have been your first hint, but it took several more weeks, and countless more hints and overtures before you allowed yourself to entertain the idea of Loki having any interest in you whatsoever.

And now he was here. In your apartment. He’d willingly trapped himself in this tiny, shabby place with you simply because he hadn’t been able to go without touching you. You would never have believed that this could have been possible, but you kept waking up in the morning there next to him, and he kept pulling you into his arms. Slowly, your brain was coming to accept the idea that this was real. That _he_ was real.

In the privacy of your apartment, he danced even more than before. Sometimes, if you were working from home and he thought you’d gone too long without paying attention to him, he’d position himself in front of you and move in a way as though to distract you. When you inevitably raised your eyes to check on the commotion, he’d grin wildly at you and lift his arms above his head, often gyrating in a way that was...actually rather enticing. It always made you laugh first, though, and when you did, he’d look almost proud that he’d successfully distracted you with nothing more than his body. Like his body wasn’t sheer perfection.

If it was his turn to make dinner, and he sensed that you were in the doorway spying on him, he danced then, too. At first, you’d hovered only because it felt so weird to allow him to cook for you in your kitchen. He was royalty. He was a god. And he insisted on taking his turns to prepare a meal for the two of you. So you’d kept yourself close by at first, in case he needed help or changed his mind and wanted you to take over. You watched him move through the kitchen, consulting your cookbooks, and he did everything perfectly. He knew where everything was. He knew what he was doing. Slowly, your vigil began to morph into simply wanting to watch him. You liked the way he seemed so perfectly at home there. It made you happy.

He must have sensed it when you came to accept his desire to cook for you, because things seemed to change for him as well. In the beginning, he’d very purposefully ignore you, only calling a few taunts over his shoulder here and there, or telling you, without much conviction, to go away and get some work done. But then things shifted. He started narrating his actions to you like in the cooking shows that you sometimes put on for background noise. He started dancing. His movements were often so graceful and lovely that it wasn’t always easy to tell exactly when he started to dance. But you noticed the way he shifted from simply moving across the kitchen to twirling himself across the floor. Sometimes he’d cast a quick look towards the doorway, like he was checking to make sure you were watching, and every time he met your eyes, he’d wink at you. 

Sneakily, you began to watch how-to-dance videos on your computer whenever Loki was in the shower. Your relationship with your body had always been...cordial, perhaps. You knew that you could trust your body to get you from place to place and to keep you alive from day to day, but that was about the extent of it. The idea of allowing yourself to move to the rhythm of music was utterly foreign to you. You’d play the videos as quietly as you could, and do your best not to crash around as you mimicked the steps on the screen, and all the while, you kept an ear out for the sound of the water shutting off. Loki never seemed to realize what you were doing.

One night, you’d been trying to practice something like a waltz. It was hard to forget the way Loki had danced that night at the party, and maybe you longed to be able to move like that with him. So you forced yourself to ignore how silly you felt to hold your hands in the air like they were resting against a dance partner and tried to count your steps. 

Maybe you were a little too distracted. 

It wasn’t until you felt Loki take you into his arms that you even realized he was out of the shower. You’d tried to cringe away from him so you could slam your computer shut, but he wouldn’t let you go. Instead, he’d cooed at you and then mumbled a few reassuring words, pressing his hand a little more firmly against your lower back.

“I can’t dance,” you managed, cheeks aflame. 

“You’re dancing now.” He sounded patient. Loving. He knew exactly what that tone of voice did to you, and he wasn’t being fair at all. He lowered his head to kiss your cheek. “Just follow my lead, love.”

He didn’t stop dancing, though he did pretty distinctly ignore the directions the instructor called out over the music. But he was easier to follow than the instructor was. With your body pressed against him like this, it was almost easy to tell what his next move would be. You stepped on his foot a few times, but he did not allow you to pull away from him or try to apologize. 

In time, you found the rhythm in his body, and you mostly stopped stepping on him. He was smiling down at you as he swept you across your living room. It was tiny and a little bit cluttered, but he made it feel like a grand ballroom all the same. Even after the video on your computer stopped playing, he kept dancing, and you all but melted in his arms when you heard him begin to hum a tune of his own. His singing voice was dark and rich, and it rumbled through his chest. It was like you could feel it in your body. It made you want to close your eyes and hide your face in his chest, so you did, and he continued to lead. 

After some time, his movements became smaller, until you were mostly stepping from one foot to another while holding each other. This kind of dancing was easy. It made you feel a little like an awkward teenager at a school dance, but something about Loki’s body made that alright. He pressed his lips to the top of your head. “And how long have you been keeping this secret from me?” 

Your cheeks burned again, but you did not raise your eyes to meet his. “A while,” you mumbled against his chest. “You dance so beautifully that I...wanted to learn.” Maybe you wanted to surprise him, or maybe you simply wanted to keep your embarrassment to a minimum. 

He tightened his arms around you in an embrace and finally allowed his feet to go still beneath him. Then he stood there in silence for a while, holding you to him like he couldn’t bear to let you go. You did the same. If each of your future attempts at dancing always ended in something like this, maybe you’d suddenly become a lot more willing to try. After some time, he pulled just far enough away to til your chin up so he could look at you. His eyes were full.

“You are so very, very dear to me.” The words were simple, perhaps even deceptively so. When you shivered, he smiled a bit and caressed your cheek. You pressed into his touch.

You stood like that for a long time, clutching each other and allowing your bodies to speak the way your mouths could not.


End file.
